The American Civil War was an armed conflict fought between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America which began with the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861. Expected to last less than a year, this war saw Americans fighting each other over the course of four long years. Nations from all across the world watched and learned from this war yet not a single one joined in the combat. The beginning of the end came in 1865 when the famous and loved General Robert E. Lee surrendered his nearly undefeated Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse VA. After this, the few remaining Confederate armies surrendered over the course of the summer of 1865. This war claimed the lives of over a half-million Americans making it the bloodiest war in American history up to that time. Central issues in the American Civil War were the conflicts of slavery vs. non-slavery, states vs. national rights, and industrial vs. agrarian economies.
The American Civil War (1861-1865)
Table of Contents
Mid-19th Century Armies
Army CompositionRanks in the Army
Weapons and Technology
RiflesArtillery
New Weapons
Naval Vessels
Telegraphs
Railroads
Medicine
Medical PersonnelDiseases
Civil War Medicines
Surgery
Military Officers and Political Leaders
Union
Abraham LincolnUlysses S. Grant
George Meade
George McClellan
William T. Sherman
Winfield Scott Hancock
David Farragut
Joshua Chamberlain
Ambrose Burnside
Philip Sheridan
Joseph Hooker
Daniel Sickles
Confederate
Jefferson DavisRobert E. Lee
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
James Longstreet
Joseph Johnston
J.E.B. Stuart
Pierre Beauregard
A.P. Hill
John C. Pemberton
Stand Waite
George Pickett
Lewis A. Armistead
Battles
Eastern Front
1st Bull Run2nd Bull Run
Antietam
Fredericksburg
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Wilderness
Spotsylvania Courthouse
Cold Harbor
Petersburg
Appomattox Court House
Western Front
Ft. Henry and DonelsonCorinth
Shiloh
Vicksburg
Atlanta
Sherman's March to the Sea
Savannah
War at Sea
Hampton RoadsMobile Bay
Music